This is the first book to focus on the history of abortion in an African context. It traces the criminalization of abortion in South Africa during the apartheid era (1948–1990), the emergence of a ...
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This is the first book to focus on the history of abortion in an African context. It traces the criminalization of abortion in South Africa during the apartheid era (1948–1990), the emergence of a flourishing clandestine abortion industry, and the controversial passage in 1975 of the country’s first statutory law on abortion. The study examines the politics of gender, sexuality, racism, and nationalism in the making and maintenance of apartheid culture, in particular regarding the authoritarian National Party government’s attempt to regulate white women’s reproductive sexuality in the interests of maintaining white supremacy. A major focus of the book is the battle about abortion that erupted in the late 1960s when doctors and feminists called for liberalization of colonial-era abortion laws. A central argument is that all women, regardless of race, were oppressed under apartheid. Although the National Party was preoccupied with denying young white women their reproductive rights, black women bore the brunt of the lack of access to safe abortion, suffering the effects of clandestine abortion on a shocking scale in urban centers around the country. At the heart of the story are the black and white girls and women who, regardless of hostility from a range of official and traditional authorities, persisted in determining their own destinies. Although a great many were harmed and even died as a result of being denied safe abortion, many more succeeded in thwarting opponents of women’s right to control their capacity to bear children. This book hopes to convey both the tragic and triumphant sides of their story.Less

Abortion Under Apartheid : Nationalism, Sexuality, and Women's Reproductive Rights in South Africa

Susanne M. Klausen

Published in print: 2015-11-26

This is the first book to focus on the history of abortion in an African context. It traces the criminalization of abortion in South Africa during the apartheid era (1948–1990), the emergence of a flourishing clandestine abortion industry, and the controversial passage in 1975 of the country’s first statutory law on abortion. The study examines the politics of gender, sexuality, racism, and nationalism in the making and maintenance of apartheid culture, in particular regarding the authoritarian National Party government’s attempt to regulate white women’s reproductive sexuality in the interests of maintaining white supremacy. A major focus of the book is the battle about abortion that erupted in the late 1960s when doctors and feminists called for liberalization of colonial-era abortion laws. A central argument is that all women, regardless of race, were oppressed under apartheid. Although the National Party was preoccupied with denying young white women their reproductive rights, black women bore the brunt of the lack of access to safe abortion, suffering the effects of clandestine abortion on a shocking scale in urban centers around the country. At the heart of the story are the black and white girls and women who, regardless of hostility from a range of official and traditional authorities, persisted in determining their own destinies. Although a great many were harmed and even died as a result of being denied safe abortion, many more succeeded in thwarting opponents of women’s right to control their capacity to bear children. This book hopes to convey both the tragic and triumphant sides of their story.

Opposition to apartheid was one of the great moments in postwar history. Its success remains a symbol of a progressive global community. An African Volk looks at this phenomenon from the other side. ...
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Opposition to apartheid was one of the great moments in postwar history. Its success remains a symbol of a progressive global community. An African Volk looks at this phenomenon from the other side. It explores how the apartheid state in South Africa sought to maintain power as the world of white empire gave way to a new postcolonial environment that repudiated racial hierarchy. Drawing upon archival research across Southern Africa and beyond, as well as over fifty hours of interviews with leading figures from the apartheid order, An African Volk shows how instead of simply resisting decolonization and African nationalism in the name of white supremacy, the white power structure looked to hijack and invert the norms of the new global era to relegitimize its rule, break out of isolation, and secure international acceptance. Situated at the nexus of African, decolonization, and Cold War history, An African Volk tells the story of how the architects of apartheid used statecraft to redefine whiteness and promote a fresh ideological basis for their rule. In doing so, it offers new global and local perspectives on the apartheid state and illuminates the complexities and contradictions of the postcolonial project. Equally, it shows how the regime’s outreach to Africa both reflected and fueled heated debates within Afrikaner society over the relationship between race, nation, and state, exposing a deeply divided polity in the midst of massive economic, cultural, and social change.Less

An African Volk : The Apartheid Regime and Its Search for Survival

Jamie Miller

Published in print: 2016-11-24

Opposition to apartheid was one of the great moments in postwar history. Its success remains a symbol of a progressive global community. An African Volk looks at this phenomenon from the other side. It explores how the apartheid state in South Africa sought to maintain power as the world of white empire gave way to a new postcolonial environment that repudiated racial hierarchy. Drawing upon archival research across Southern Africa and beyond, as well as over fifty hours of interviews with leading figures from the apartheid order, An African Volk shows how instead of simply resisting decolonization and African nationalism in the name of white supremacy, the white power structure looked to hijack and invert the norms of the new global era to relegitimize its rule, break out of isolation, and secure international acceptance. Situated at the nexus of African, decolonization, and Cold War history, An African Volk tells the story of how the architects of apartheid used statecraft to redefine whiteness and promote a fresh ideological basis for their rule. In doing so, it offers new global and local perspectives on the apartheid state and illuminates the complexities and contradictions of the postcolonial project. Equally, it shows how the regime’s outreach to Africa both reflected and fueled heated debates within Afrikaner society over the relationship between race, nation, and state, exposing a deeply divided polity in the midst of massive economic, cultural, and social change.

Mark Jackson

History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine

We are living in a stressful world. Approximately half of all British employees suffer from workplace stress and over 13 million working days are lost through stress each year, costing the economy ...
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We are living in a stressful world. Approximately half of all British employees suffer from workplace stress and over 13 million working days are lost through stress each year, costing the economy over £4 billion per annum. Stress has had a similar impact throughout the modern world: in both developed and developing countries, stress is now the most commonly cited cause of sickness absence from work and stress-related conditions, such as depression, heart disease and cancer, constitute a substantial source of personal ill-health and economic burden. Focusing on the evolution of biological and psychological understandings of stress during the twentieth century, The Age of Stress explores the relationship between scientific formulations and personal experiences of stress, on the one hand, and socio-political and cultural contexts, on the other. The book argues that scientific theories of stress and disease were strongly influenced not only by laboratory studies of homeostasis, but also by wider social, cultural and intellectual currents: the impact of economic depression during the inter-war years; modernist commitments to social reform; concerns about the consequences of military conflict during and after the Second World War; fluctuating global anxieties about political instability and the threat of terrorism during the Cold War; scientific studies of cybernetics; socio-biological accounts of behaviour; and counter-cultural arguments urging consumers to resist the incipient pressures of modern capitalism. The science of stress that emerged in this climate of anxiety was driven and shaped by, and in turn served to structure and direct, the search for individual and collective happiness in a troubled world.Less

The Age of Stress : Science and the Search for Stability

Mark Jackson

Published in print: 2013-03-21

We are living in a stressful world. Approximately half of all British employees suffer from workplace stress and over 13 million working days are lost through stress each year, costing the economy over £4 billion per annum. Stress has had a similar impact throughout the modern world: in both developed and developing countries, stress is now the most commonly cited cause of sickness absence from work and stress-related conditions, such as depression, heart disease and cancer, constitute a substantial source of personal ill-health and economic burden. Focusing on the evolution of biological and psychological understandings of stress during the twentieth century, The Age of Stress explores the relationship between scientific formulations and personal experiences of stress, on the one hand, and socio-political and cultural contexts, on the other. The book argues that scientific theories of stress and disease were strongly influenced not only by laboratory studies of homeostasis, but also by wider social, cultural and intellectual currents: the impact of economic depression during the inter-war years; modernist commitments to social reform; concerns about the consequences of military conflict during and after the Second World War; fluctuating global anxieties about political instability and the threat of terrorism during the Cold War; scientific studies of cybernetics; socio-biological accounts of behaviour; and counter-cultural arguments urging consumers to resist the incipient pressures of modern capitalism. The science of stress that emerged in this climate of anxiety was driven and shaped by, and in turn served to structure and direct, the search for individual and collective happiness in a troubled world.

In colonial-era Egypt, a new social category of “modern men” emerged, the efendiyya (sg. efendi). Working as bureaucrats, teachers, journalists, free professionals and public intellectuals, the ...
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In colonial-era Egypt, a new social category of “modern men” emerged, the efendiyya (sg. efendi). Working as bureaucrats, teachers, journalists, free professionals and public intellectuals, the efendis represented new middle class elites. They were the experts who drafted and carried out the state’s modernisation policies, and the makers as well as majority consumers of modern forms of politics and national culture. As simultaneously “authentic” and “modern,” they assumed key political role in the anti-colonial movement and in the building of a modern state both before and after the revolution of 1952. This book tells the story of where did these self-consciously modern men come from, and how did they come to be through multiple social, cultural, and institutional contexts. These contexts included social strategies pursued by “traditional” middling households responding to new opportunities for social mobility; modern schools as (non-exclusive) vehicles for new forms of knowledge opening possibilities to redefine social authority; but they also included new forms of youth culture, student rituals and peer networks, as well as urban popular culture writ large. Through these contexts, a historically novel experience of being an efendi emerged. New social practices (politics, or writing) and new cultural forms and genres (literature, autobiography) were its key sites of self-expression. Through these venues, an efendi culture imbued with a sense of mission, duty, and entitlement was articulated, and defined against and in relation to two main contrastive others: “traditional” society and western modernity-cum-colonial authority. Both represented the efendis’ social, cultural and political nemeses, who, in some contexts, could also become his allies.Less

The Age of the Efendiyya : Passages to Modernity in National-Colonial Egypt

Lucie Ryzova

Published in print: 2014-01-30

In colonial-era Egypt, a new social category of “modern men” emerged, the efendiyya (sg. efendi). Working as bureaucrats, teachers, journalists, free professionals and public intellectuals, the efendis represented new middle class elites. They were the experts who drafted and carried out the state’s modernisation policies, and the makers as well as majority consumers of modern forms of politics and national culture. As simultaneously “authentic” and “modern,” they assumed key political role in the anti-colonial movement and in the building of a modern state both before and after the revolution of 1952. This book tells the story of where did these self-consciously modern men come from, and how did they come to be through multiple social, cultural, and institutional contexts. These contexts included social strategies pursued by “traditional” middling households responding to new opportunities for social mobility; modern schools as (non-exclusive) vehicles for new forms of knowledge opening possibilities to redefine social authority; but they also included new forms of youth culture, student rituals and peer networks, as well as urban popular culture writ large. Through these contexts, a historically novel experience of being an efendi emerged. New social practices (politics, or writing) and new cultural forms and genres (literature, autobiography) were its key sites of self-expression. Through these venues, an efendi culture imbued with a sense of mission, duty, and entitlement was articulated, and defined against and in relation to two main contrastive others: “traditional” society and western modernity-cum-colonial authority. Both represented the efendis’ social, cultural and political nemeses, who, in some contexts, could also become his allies.

This is a study of the administration and government of the West African kingdom of Asante between 1744 and 1873. The book analyses the nature and development of the pre-colonial state, and traces ...
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This is a study of the administration and government of the West African kingdom of Asante between 1744 and 1873. The book analyses the nature and development of the pre-colonial state, and traces the history and character of the Asante-Dutch relationship from the early 18th century until the Dutch departure from the Gold Coast in 1872. The book contains extensive research in hitherto neglected Dutch archives, and gives detailed examination of important Asante oral sources. This book broadens our knowledge of the complexities of Afro-European relations on the pre-colonial Gold Coast, and contributes to historiographical debates concerning our understanding of African institutions.Less

Asante and the Dutch 1744–1873

Larry W. Yarak

Published in print: 1990-07-19

This is a study of the administration and government of the West African kingdom of Asante between 1744 and 1873. The book analyses the nature and development of the pre-colonial state, and traces the history and character of the Asante-Dutch relationship from the early 18th century until the Dutch departure from the Gold Coast in 1872. The book contains extensive research in hitherto neglected Dutch archives, and gives detailed examination of important Asante oral sources. This book broadens our knowledge of the complexities of Afro-European relations on the pre-colonial Gold Coast, and contributes to historiographical debates concerning our understanding of African institutions.

This book presents a “shared” history of Asian involvement in the Great War from non-national and transnational perspectives. Asian involvements make the Great War not only a true “world” war but ...
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This book presents a “shared” history of Asian involvement in the Great War from non-national and transnational perspectives. Asian involvements make the Great War not only a true “world” war but also a “great” war. The war generated forces that would transform Asia both internally and externally. Asian participation transformed the meaning and implications of the broader conflict. The First World War was in fact a defining moment that shaped worldviews and developments across Asia. This book is also meant to be a step in recovering memories of the war and re-evaluating the war in its Asian contexts. The Asians’ part in the war and the part the war played in the collective development of Asia represent the first steps of the long journey to full national independence and international recognition. This book aims to bring the Great War more fully into Asian history and Asians into the international history of the war with hope that this book helps the people of Asia develop a better understanding of their shared history through the Great War in order to lay the groundwork for a healthy and peaceful journey into a future that will only be shared, not lived separately.Less

Asia and the Great War : A Shared History

Xu Guoqi

Published in print: 2016-11-24

This book presents a “shared” history of Asian involvement in the Great War from non-national and transnational perspectives. Asian involvements make the Great War not only a true “world” war but also a “great” war. The war generated forces that would transform Asia both internally and externally. Asian participation transformed the meaning and implications of the broader conflict. The First World War was in fact a defining moment that shaped worldviews and developments across Asia. This book is also meant to be a step in recovering memories of the war and re-evaluating the war in its Asian contexts. The Asians’ part in the war and the part the war played in the collective development of Asia represent the first steps of the long journey to full national independence and international recognition. This book aims to bring the Great War more fully into Asian history and Asians into the international history of the war with hope that this book helps the people of Asia develop a better understanding of their shared history through the Great War in order to lay the groundwork for a healthy and peaceful journey into a future that will only be shared, not lived separately.

Assimilation was an ideology central to European expansion and colonization, an ideology which legitimized colonization for centuries. This book shows that the aspiration for assimilation was not ...
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Assimilation was an ideology central to European expansion and colonization, an ideology which legitimized colonization for centuries. This book shows that the aspiration for assimilation was not only driven by materialistic reasons but also motivated by ideas. The engine of assimilation has to be found in the combination of two powerful ideas, namely the European philosophical conception of human perfectibility and the idea of the modern state. Europeans wanted to create, in their empires, political and cultural forms which they valued and wanted to realize in their own societies but which did not yet exist. This book examines three imperial experiments—seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New France, nineteenth-century British Australia, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century French Algeria—and reveals the complex interrelationship between policies of assimilation, which were driven by a desire for perfection and universality, and the greatest challenge to those policies, namely, discourses of race, which were based upon perceptions of difference. Neither colonized nor European peoples themselves were able to conform to the ideals given as the object of assimilation. Yet, the deep links between assimilation and empire remained because at no point since the sixteenth century has the utopian project of perfection—articulated through the progressive theory of history—been placed seriously in question. The failure of assimilation pursued through empire, for both colonized and colonizer, reveals the futility of the historical pursuit of perfection.Less

Assimilation and Empire : Uniformity in French and British Colonies, 1541-1954

Saliha Belmessous

Published in print: 2013-03-21

Assimilation was an ideology central to European expansion and colonization, an ideology which legitimized colonization for centuries. This book shows that the aspiration for assimilation was not only driven by materialistic reasons but also motivated by ideas. The engine of assimilation has to be found in the combination of two powerful ideas, namely the European philosophical conception of human perfectibility and the idea of the modern state. Europeans wanted to create, in their empires, political and cultural forms which they valued and wanted to realize in their own societies but which did not yet exist. This book examines three imperial experiments—seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New France, nineteenth-century British Australia, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century French Algeria—and reveals the complex interrelationship between policies of assimilation, which were driven by a desire for perfection and universality, and the greatest challenge to those policies, namely, discourses of race, which were based upon perceptions of difference. Neither colonized nor European peoples themselves were able to conform to the ideals given as the object of assimilation. Yet, the deep links between assimilation and empire remained because at no point since the sixteenth century has the utopian project of perfection—articulated through the progressive theory of history—been placed seriously in question. The failure of assimilation pursued through empire, for both colonized and colonizer, reveals the futility of the historical pursuit of perfection.

This book reappraises Australia’s experience of empire since the end of the British Empire. The volume examines the meaning and importance of empire in Australia across a broad spectrum of historical ...
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This book reappraises Australia’s experience of empire since the end of the British Empire. The volume examines the meaning and importance of empire in Australia across a broad spectrum of historical issues — ranging from the disinheritance of the Aborigines to the foundations of a new democratic state. The overriding theme is the distinctive Australian perspective on empire. The country’s adherence to imperial ideals and aspirations involved not merely the building of a ‘new Britannia’ but also the forging of a distinctive new culture and society. It was Australian interests and aspirations which ultimately shaped ‘Australia’s Empire’. While modern Australians have often played down the significance of their British imperial past, the chapters in this book argue that the legacies of empire continue to influence the temper and texture of Australian society today.Less

Australia’s Empire

Deryck SchreuderStuart Ward

Published in print: 2010-01-07

This book reappraises Australia’s experience of empire since the end of the British Empire. The volume examines the meaning and importance of empire in Australia across a broad spectrum of historical issues — ranging from the disinheritance of the Aborigines to the foundations of a new democratic state. The overriding theme is the distinctive Australian perspective on empire. The country’s adherence to imperial ideals and aspirations involved not merely the building of a ‘new Britannia’ but also the forging of a distinctive new culture and society. It was Australian interests and aspirations which ultimately shaped ‘Australia’s Empire’. While modern Australians have often played down the significance of their British imperial past, the chapters in this book argue that the legacies of empire continue to influence the temper and texture of Australian society today.

At the end of World War II the Allies faced a threefold challenge: how to punish perpetrators of appalling crimes for which the categories of ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ had to be ...
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At the end of World War II the Allies faced a threefold challenge: how to punish perpetrators of appalling crimes for which the categories of ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ had to be coined; how to explain that these had been committed by Germany, of all nations; and how to reform Germans. The answer to this triple conundrum was the application of historical reasoning to legal procedure. In the Nuremberg trials held between 1945 and 1949, a concerted effort was made to punish key perpetrators while at the same time analysing the Nazi state and recounting German history. Building on a long debate about Germany’s divergence from a presumed Western path of development, Allied prosecutors sketched out how Germany had betrayed the Western model. The prosecutors laid out how private enterprise, academic science, the military, and the civil service, which looked ostensibly similar to their opposite numbers in the Allied nations, had been corrupted in Germany even before Hitler’s rise to power. While the argument, depending on individual protagonists, subject matters, and contexts, met with uneven success in court, it offered a final twist against the backdrop of the Cold War: although Germany had lost its way, it could still be brought back into the Western fold. The first comprehensive study of the Nuremberg trials, The Betrayal explores this process and sheds light on how history underpins transitional trials as we encounter them in today’s courtrooms from Arusha to The Hague.Less

The Betrayal : The Nuremberg Trials and German Divergence

Kim Christian Priemel

Published in print: 2016-09-15

At the end of World War II the Allies faced a threefold challenge: how to punish perpetrators of appalling crimes for which the categories of ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ had to be coined; how to explain that these had been committed by Germany, of all nations; and how to reform Germans. The answer to this triple conundrum was the application of historical reasoning to legal procedure. In the Nuremberg trials held between 1945 and 1949, a concerted effort was made to punish key perpetrators while at the same time analysing the Nazi state and recounting German history. Building on a long debate about Germany’s divergence from a presumed Western path of development, Allied prosecutors sketched out how Germany had betrayed the Western model. The prosecutors laid out how private enterprise, academic science, the military, and the civil service, which looked ostensibly similar to their opposite numbers in the Allied nations, had been corrupted in Germany even before Hitler’s rise to power. While the argument, depending on individual protagonists, subject matters, and contexts, met with uneven success in court, it offered a final twist against the backdrop of the Cold War: although Germany had lost its way, it could still be brought back into the Western fold. The first comprehensive study of the Nuremberg trials, The Betrayal explores this process and sheds light on how history underpins transitional trials as we encounter them in today’s courtrooms from Arusha to The Hague.

At the start of his administration, John F. Kennedy launched a personal policy initiative to court African nationalist leaders. This policy was designed to improve US-African relations and ...
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At the start of his administration, John F. Kennedy launched a personal policy initiative to court African nationalist leaders. This policy was designed to improve US-African relations and constituted a dramatic change in the direction of US foreign relations. The Kennedy administration believed that the Cold War could be won or lost depending upon whether Washington or Moscow won the hearts and minds of the Third World. Africa was particularly important because a wave of independence saw nineteen newly independent African states admitted into the United Nations during 1960–61. By 1962, 31 of the UN’s 110 member states were from the African continent, and both Washington and Moscow sought to add these countries to their respective voting bloc. For Kennedy, the Cold War only amplified the need for a strong US policy toward Africa—but did not create it. The Kennedy administration feared that American neglect of the newly decolonized countries of the world would result in the rise of anti-Americanism and for this reason needed to be addressed irrespective of the Cold War. For this reason, Kennedy devoted more time and effort toward relations with Africa than any other American president has. By making an in-depth examination of Kennedy’s attempt to court African nationalist leaders, this study adds an important chapter to the historiography of John F. Kennedy’s Cold War strategy. It also demonstrates that, through understanding and personal diplomacy, Kennedy realigned US policy toward Africa and largely won over the sympathies of its people.Less

Betting on the Africans : John F. Kennedy's Courting of African Nationalist Leaders

Philip E. Muehlenbeck

Published in print: 2012-02-06

At the start of his administration, John F. Kennedy launched a personal policy initiative to court African nationalist leaders. This policy was designed to improve US-African relations and constituted a dramatic change in the direction of US foreign relations. The Kennedy administration believed that the Cold War could be won or lost depending upon whether Washington or Moscow won the hearts and minds of the Third World. Africa was particularly important because a wave of independence saw nineteen newly independent African states admitted into the United Nations during 1960–61. By 1962, 31 of the UN’s 110 member states were from the African continent, and both Washington and Moscow sought to add these countries to their respective voting bloc. For Kennedy, the Cold War only amplified the need for a strong US policy toward Africa—but did not create it. The Kennedy administration feared that American neglect of the newly decolonized countries of the world would result in the rise of anti-Americanism and for this reason needed to be addressed irrespective of the Cold War. For this reason, Kennedy devoted more time and effort toward relations with Africa than any other American president has. By making an in-depth examination of Kennedy’s attempt to court African nationalist leaders, this study adds an important chapter to the historiography of John F. Kennedy’s Cold War strategy. It also demonstrates that, through understanding and personal diplomacy, Kennedy realigned US policy toward Africa and largely won over the sympathies of its people.

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